290 Report on an Inquiry into the Nature, Causes, and 
A yearling steer, inoculated with cultivated Bacillus of the 
guinea-pig-, after forty hours had a rise of temperature with 
local swelling, followed by high fever, lasting about six days, 
this then subsiding and leaving the animal well. 
A second inoculation direct from the guinea-pig was practi- 
cally without effect. A third with similar material, which killed 
a cow inoculated with it, was likewise without effect. A fourth, 
with similar but still more active material, was likewise devoid 
of effect. And lastly, direct inoculation from a sheep was 
followed by very slight fever, which passed off without any 
result beyond a small local abscess. This was the only instance 
in which such an abscess was found. 
A cow, old, emaciated, and in-calf, was inoculated direct from 
the guinea-pig, and rapidly died of anthrax, having had but 
little rise of temperature or other symptoms. 
A calf, six months old, inoculated with cultivated Bacillus 
fluid, suffered from intense fever, lasting five days, with con- 
siderable local swelling, but the temperature then fell, and the 
animal recovered. The course of the temperature was closely 
analogous to that in the first case. 
It is scarcely safe at present to attempt to draw any very 
general conclusions from the experiments which have been per- 
formed, but I think enough has been done to show the great 
importance of the inquiry, and the possibility, if not probability, 
that by this or some analogous method a means may be dis- 
covered of controlling or preventing this widely prevalent and 
highly fatal disease. 
It must be evident to any one who considers the matter that 
there are many points which must be determined by experiments 
of a much more extensive character than any I am able to 
carry out at the Brown Institution. If, as I hope, it should 
prove on further experiment that the earlier results are con- 
firmed, and that the inoculation of bovine animals with the 
Bacillus anthracis cultivated artificially after transmission through 
guinea-pigs or some other animal serves to render bovine animals 
totally or partially insusceptible to the disease when transmitted 
by the usual channels, one great step will have been taken. 
But there will yet remain the questions : Is the mortality from 
inoculation by this method a high one, or do even a small per- 
centage of animals die ? What are the conditions under which 
inoculation may be best performed, and does age exercise an 
important influence in the fatality ? And, lastly, for how long 
a period is protection from attack conferred ? 
To settle these points, the inoculation of a large number of 
animals will be necessary, and their subsequent exposure to 
sources of contagion at favourable periods. 
